DOUGLAS: MURDER SUSPECTS REFUSE TO FACE VICTIM’S MOTHER AT STABBING INQUEST
A tearful mother shouted ‘I just want justice’ as two former suspects for her son’s murder refused to give evidence at his inquest.
Nathan Douglas was just 20 when he was stabbed to death in a south London Street three years ago.
Since then despite an extensive investigation no-one has been charged with his killing, with the only potential eyewitnesses refusing to help the police.
Nathan’s parents and other family members attended Westminster Coroners Court for a full inquest into his death.
Among the witnesses listed to give evidence today were brothers Emmanuel Bailey, 20, and Richard Evelyn, 28.
Both brothers were arrested as suspects but never charged over the death, and are now serving prison sentences over linked drug offences.
Police have asked for murder charges to be brought against them on three separate occasions, but that each time Crown Prosecution Service lawyers have decided there was not enough evidence to secure a successful prosecution, the inquest heard.
Bailey and Evelyn were both brought to the court building today, but each refused to come up to the courtroom itself and give evidence in front of Nathan’s family.
Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said that she did not have the power to summons them and she believed it was better to complete the inquest today rather than force them to appear in the witness stand on a later date, as even then they would not be obliged to answer any questions.
She said: ‘I feel it would only prolong the agony for the family.’
Speaking from the back of the courtroom, Nathan’s mother Sarah Haines, said: ‘I just want justice. Justice for my son.
‘The murderers are sitting downstairs.’
Nathan died following an incident outside the London Ambulance Services building in Cromford Road, Wandsworth, on the night of November 3, 2008.
He had travelled there by car with three friends, including his brother, to buy drugs, but none of them have been able to tell police what had happened.
A member of the public who was walking home saw four men fighting in the street, with one man repeatedly punching another by a parked van. She said she ‘clearly’ saw one of the men was holding a pistol.
She said three of them ran off, leaving the one who had been punched with his hands ‘covered in blood’.
The inquest heard that he then staggered back to his car and his friends called the emergency services. Paramedics battled to save him, but he died at the scene.
Medical evidence suggested that Nathan had been stabbed once in the neck, probably with a screwdriver.
The wound punctured major blood vessels as well as his windpipe, and he died within minutes from bleeding and damage to his airway.
DCI Russell Taylor, who led the murder investigation, said that detectives were able to trace Bailey and Evelyn to the scene, and that forensics teams had linked them to a small amount Nathan’s blood.
He said that because the other witnesses who had travelled with Nathan that night had not given full accounts of what they saw, the CPS had ruled there was not enough evidence to charge the brothers with murder.
DCI Taylor said his team had twice asked CPS lawyers to bring the case against them, and that on a third occasion he had unsuccessfully appealed their decision.
Dr Radliffe recorded that Nathan, who lived in Grosvenor Terrace in Camberwell, had been unlawful killed.
She emphasised that the police murder inquiry was never closed and could be resumed should new evidence come to light.
Verdict: Unlawful killing
ENDS
